Coming to you this week on A Prairie Home Companion, we're broadcasting from the Fitzgerald Theater. Special guests Jeff Tweedy and the alt-rock boys of Wilco will bring the noise while bluegrass belle Patty Loveless will lend us her mountain soul. Also with us, The Royal Academy of Radio Actors; Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Tom Keith, the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, and The News from Lake Wobegon.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, it's our broadcast season opener, followed by the traditional street dance, and meatloaf supper. With special guests, The Sam Bush Band, Salsa Del Soul, and singer-songwriters Connie Evingson, Sarah Jarosz, and Andra Suchy. Also with us, the Royal Academy of Radio Actors; Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Tom Keith, The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, and The News from Lake Wobegon.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, we're rolling up the rugs, moving the kitchen table out of the way, and getting up to speed for next week's Street Dance & Meatloaf Supper. With some swing tunes, hot salsa numbers, polkas, a hula, one tango and a couple of waltzes. Ledward Ka'apana plays the "Radio Hula," Finnish whirling dervishes Frigg play "Polka Internationale," and The Hot Club of Cowtown plays "Forget Me Nots." Guy Noir bumps into a dancing pair of Siamese twins, Lola and Lulu Lippizaner, and Ruth Harrison clashes with a would-be biographer doing research on former strip-tease artist Bubbles Bergerud. Plus, the story of Lake Wobegon's most famous dancer, Bob.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, a Western combo featuring one show from Missoula, Montana and another from Pullman, Washington with yodeling cowboy Wylie Gustafson, rancher/songstress Stephanie Davis, and the old-time acoustic duo Growling Old Men. Plus, Idaho grown singer-songwriter Charlie Sutton, a tribute to the mighty Lentil, and the story of a young novelist who leaves the big city for an abandoned boxcar on the shores of the Palouse River. In Lake Wobegon, the rift between Clint and Clarence Bunsen grows and the Petersen car is submerged in the lake.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion we're broadcasting from the Minnesota State Fair, celebrating the 150th year of The Great Minnesota Get-Together. Serving up deep-fried bluegrass with Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, fresh songs on a stick with the uniquely wonderful Mindy Smith. Veteran knife-thrower, mandolin and fiddle slinger Peter Ostroushko, and our Blue Ribbon Singer of the Prairie, Andra Suchy, is with us as well. Also along for the rides: The Royal Academy of Radio Actors: Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Tom Keith, and The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band. Plus, the latest news from Lake Wobegon.

Coming up this week on A Prairie Home Companion, a show devoted to our four-legged friends: our pets. We'll hear a few tunes from the trusty Bertha's Kitty Boutique Songbook, including "Cat You'd Better Come Home," "The Haydn Cat," and "The Conscientious Cat." Stephanie Davis sings "Goodnight Little Cowpup," Greg Brown sings "Like a Dog" and — in great French tradition — the Cafe Boeuf now allows dogs. Guy Noir investigates the disappearance of a fish named Kevin, Dusty and Lefty are in the hoosegow for accidentally shooting a pet cocker spaniel, and we'll hear Rossini's little-known seldom-heard "Cat Duet." In Lake Wobegon, Mr. Hoppe gets a new terrier, Loretta, who rides shotgun in his car wearing her seat belt, of course.

This week, A Prairie Home Companion is a mix of three shows we've done from the Starlight Theater in Kansas City, Missouri — including one that ranks as the most hazardous show we've ever done, with the thermometer registering over 100 degrees on stage and thunder and lightning closing in on all sides. Roy Blount Jr. talks about the art of the southern supper, Calvin Trillin remembers a childhood marked by chigger bites. Iris DeMent sings "These Hills," the Carolina Chocolate Drops bring to life the foot-stomping old-timey music from the Piedmont region of North Carolina and Virginia, and Jearlyn Steele is on with a word from Mama. Plus, in Lake Wobegon the little ones are off to Zion Bible Camp.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, a poetry compilation show with a remembrance of Hayden Carruth, a poem by, and song for, Kenneth Rexroth and more Poets Laureate past and present than you can shake a stick at, including: Billy Collins (U.S.), Robert Bly (Minnesota) and Maxine Kumin (U.S./ New Hampshire). Also included are songwriter/poets Elvis Costello, Brad Paisley, Nellie McKay and Nick Lowe. Plus the National Champion of Poetry Out Loud (2009). In Lake Wobegon, Judy Inqvist volunteers to chaperone the sophomore class to the zoo in order to gather material for a poem she's writing.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, a mix of two Oklahoma shows with native Okie, legendary bluesman Elvin Bishop singing "Oklahoma Country Girl," some foot-stomping barroom tunes from The Hot Club of Cowtown, and Arlo Guthrie sings "Oklahoma Hills." Plus, in the Lives of the Cowboys, a smooth-talking southern preacher talks Lefty into sitting on a "whoopee cushion of faith," and the latest from the epicenter of news in Lake Wobegon, the Bon Marche Beauty Salon.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, a show for Lutherans and the people who love them. Guy Noir helps out a Sunday School teacher in a bind, Dan Newton and The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band play the "Lutheran Polka," and VocalEssence encourages good works. Plus, a message from Lutherans Online (LOL) and what constitutes a Lutheran summer vacation, or not, in Lake Wobegon. This week's show is brought to you by Lutheran Tours: Designing vacations that make you glad to get back home.